MPavilion unveiled

Rita Bila

The inaugural MPavilion was unveiled in Melbourne’s Queen Victoria Gardens earlier this month on 7 October. This is the first in a major new series of annual architecture commissions and design events initiated by Naomi Milgrom Foundation. A new temporary pavilion will be commissioned each year from a leading international architect to house talks, workshops, performances and installations from October until January.

As part of a landmark public/private partnership with the City of Melbourne and the Victorian State Government, the Foundation has committed to funding the design and construction of at least four annual temporary pavilions to be presented in the Gardens across spring and summer each year, before gifting the pavilion to the City of Melbourne.

The first of these commissions has been awarded to the internationally acclaimed architect Sean Godsell. The temporary structure literally unfurls each day to open itself up to a range of events that will further activate the structure for its duration in the gardens. Presented will be a range of films, talks, music events, art interventions and dance performances.

“MPavillion will reinforce Melbourne’s standing as a global leader in design and architecture with the creation of a pavilion designed by four outstanding architects over four years. Through my foundation I want to initiate a truly inspirational design and architecture project for Melbourne with an enduring legacy. I was inspired by London’s Serpentine Gallery Pavilion and have sought to take this idea further by adding a robust cultural program that celebrates design, architecture and creativity in our city,” said Ms Milgrom.

Mr Godsell commented in his design: “The MPavilion is a simple steel structure with glazed roof and fully automated outer skin. It provides shade and shelter and filters the sun. It’s precedent can be seen on distant hills and far horizons in the Australian outback.

“The design incorporates an innovative construction with wall and roof panels that open and close on pneumatic arms. This fully automated ‘outer skin’ means that the pavilion will ‘open’ each morning and ‘close’ at the end of the day in a number of different configurations. It’s exterior is perforated aluminium that reflects light and animates the building. Conceived as architecture that ‘blooms like a flower’ each day and opens to its audience, its also has a mysterious box-like quality at night.”

MPavilion has been constructed in the heart if the City’s creative hub within Southbank Arts Precinct, inside the Queen Victoria Gardens on St Kilda Road, opposite the Arts Centre Melbourne. At the conclusion of the public presentation of MPavilion, the pavilion will be gifted to the City of Melbourne with the Council planning to relocate the pavilions to permanent sites in the city and so create an ongoing legacy of contemporary architecture.